Portable electronic devices including communication receivers, such as radios, cellular and cordless telephones, pagers and the like, and data banks and other data sources, are becoming increasingly popular. In many instances it is desirable to provide a visual display on the receiver to supply the operator with a visual message. The problem is that prior art visual displays require relatively high electrical power and require a great amount of area to be sufficiently large to produce a useful display. In all direct view displays, for example, the size of the display is the size of image that the operator sees. Thus, to provide an image with sufficient size so that the operator can easily and comfortably understand the information being communicated, either the display must be extremely large, thereby increasing the size of the portable electronic device or the information contained in the image must be substantially reduced.
In the prior art, for example, it is common to provide visual displays utilizing liquid crystal displays, directly viewed light emitting diodes, etc. These produce very large and cumbersome displays that greatly increase the size of the receiver and require relatively large amounts of power. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,034,809, entitled "Personal Video Viewing Apparatus", for example, the apparatus includes liquid crystal displays and is so large it must be constructed so that the total weight of the display apparatus is supported mainly on the whole of the forehead.
In another instance, the prior art includes a scanning mirror to produce a larger visual display from one or two rows of LEDs but again this requires relatively large amounts of power and is very complicated and sensitive to shock. Thus, such scanning mirrors are not acceptable for portable electronic devices that may be dropped or otherwise roughly handled. Also, the scanning mirror causes vibration in the unit which substantially reduces visual comfort and acceptability.
Also, in the viewing apparatus disclosed in the above described '809 Patent, a pair of apparatus, each including optics and a liquid crystal display, are combined in a single structure to provide binocular and/or stereoscopic vision. However, the main problems which this structure is designed to overcome is the fatigue experienced when watching images on a stationary video display for long periods of time.
Accordingly, a small, rugged display with binocular vision for use in portable electronic equipment would be very useful.
It is a purpose of the present invention to provide a new and improved binocular virtual display.
It is another purpose of the present invention to provide a new and improved binocular virtual display which is useful in combination with portable electronic equipment.
It is still another purpose of the present invention to provide a new and improved binocular virtual display which utilizes very low electrical power.
It is a further purpose of the present invention to provide a new and improved binocular virtual display which is easily incorporated into portable electronic equipment without substantially increasing the size, power requirements, or weight of the portable electronic equipment.
It is a still further purpose of the present invention to provide a new and improved binocular virtual display with enhanced display capabilities.